"An utter masterpiece from the great Akira Kurosawa. Curiously, a Dashiell Hammet novel provided the inspiration for this film. I love that an American pulp novel from the 1920s was the spark for a staggering work of genius from Japan over three decades later. It demonstrates how art can transcend barriers across time, space, and culture and speak to us in a meaningful way. Yojimbo was remade as Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western classic A Fistful of Dollars, which I saw and loved long before I knew the original even existed. But when I discovered Yojimbo, it was like a gift from the universe. Everything else paled in comparison. Yojimbo is part western, part gangster noir, part samurai story, all awesome. It’s so good. Plus, if Kubo’s dad looks a wee bit like Kurosawa’s resplendent muse Toshiro Mifune, that’s not necessarily a coincidence."

"Apparently someone is writing a 33 1/3 book about this 1981 album, which is universally regarded as Japan's masterpiece. It features electric guitar sounds previously possible only for Adrian Belew; the bass is so fretless it sounds like a moaning sea mammal, the gorgeous drums are so tonal they could be marimbas, the Prophet 5 synthesizer sits quietly in the mix making squiggly noises; and sometimes a violin plays, in a manner previously heard only in Chinese opera. The lyric and visual emphasis is on modern Chinese culture (like Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) without the spy-spoof parts) but not Chinoiserie – no pentatonic xylophones – and the implication that the future is Chinese is no more threatening than Kraftwerk implying the future is German. "We're young and strong in this party, building our visions of China." "

"First up, Touki Bouki. It’s such a raw experimental work. I love its visual honesty and color palette. It also speaks to such an interesting experience within the diaspora – the idea of feeling sort of alienated by your own home. By Djibril Diop Mambéty, it speaks on a ton of things: cultural domination, neocolonialism, how you can feel alienated from your own culture. A visceral and brutal film made in the ’70s in Senegal. It starts with this beautiful wide static shot. We [the audience] are on sticks looking out as this herd starts to approach, and the color palette is insane. Like I said, it was made in the early ’70s, and they don’t shy away from showing anything. I don’t want to go too deep into what they don’t shy away from, because it’s a lot."

"If what make a work of literature a classic is its ability to be a mirror held up against all times and all human societies — the personal experience and the political one — I think this short novel by Isak Dinesen (or Karen Blixen in her homeland, Denmark) must be in the process of becoming one. Read against our own times it can bee seen as a simple tale about a woman on the run from civil war who seeks refuge in an isolated community. Bringing nothing along with her into her exile but her natural kind spirit and knowledge of the culture of the culinary arts, Babette makes a quiet existence for herself as a simple housekeeper until the day she gets the opportunity to show and share her extraordinary skills. And there is nothing simple about that."